Friday, May 29, 2009

Chief Boima has done it again. Not content with blowing our minds with his Descendants United mix for The Fader he has made a freakin awesome Calypso reggae meltdown over at our US buds Green Owl. If this doesn't get your summer BBQ going then all your friends secretly hate you.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

We have quite a lineup of guests coming up this summer at our new weekly that's starting tonight in Oakland, CA, Descendants United. Come experience the Ghetto Bassquake en vivo, every Thursday! As evidence by last weekend at The People party, Oakland can be a special place when folks get down.

Resident DJ's Aebl Dee, Chief Boima, Refusenik, Shawn Dub.

Tonights special guests:

Jennifer Johns R&B/Soul, world spirit channeling singer out of Oakland.

Geko Jones. Wobble Bass, Dutty Artzer outta BK, NY! Warming up in Oakland and blasting off at Little Baobab in San Francisco this Saturday!

Location tonight and every Thursday is Luka's Taproom on Broadway in downtown Oakland.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Mr. Maga Bo recently released his third video clip for the record, "Archipelagoes." Teba's a wicked MC, with his gruff delivery, and socially conscious lyrics. FCK always gets plays for me. He doesn't disappoint on this one. Can you say the Xhosa chorus? Practice with the kids at the end of this video, it's fun! Kids are fun.

Some interesting things about the video from Maga Bo:

The video was shot over 2 days in Guguletu, one of Cape Town's most notorious townships and Teba's home turf - with all borrowed equipment - borrowed camera, boom box, the car on loan, people leting us into their houses to film. Back in the day, Teba was a member of the super successful kwaito group Skeem, which put out several albums before he left to do more socially conscious work. He now leads workshops in lyric writing and gumboot dancing (!), is part of the African Dope Sound System, has his own live band and has collaborated with the likes of Stereotyp, Godessa and SiBot.

You can check the other videos from Archipelagoes "Fire feat. Xuman" and "Saye Mbott feat. ALIF with Ndiaya" on Vimeo and on his great Youtube page that includes his interview series, which is a definite Global Bass primer.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

I'm watching Duffy on MTV playing a live concert in Europe someplace. The sound is off. Even the crowd look bored. I'm bored!

So I was thinking about crazy vocals. The autotune is kinda tired but there are some tracks out there that take it to another level.

From Panama Cocoman's 'El Marciano' (The martian) has both high AND low alien vocals. It's a bizarre proto-Reggaeton track that I'm told was was pretty massive all over Latin America back in the day (early 90s).

Nigeria. I picked this cd up in a London market from a guy selling cds called Nigerian Vybz vol.1-8. I don't know much about X-Project but they make coupe decale style bangers from Lagos like this. The alien voice only happens on one verse. Played by a dwarf in in the video.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

If I remember to, I will try to post a feature length movie trailer once a week here... or remind Vamanos to post one. I was thinking only Nollywood, but there are plenty of industries out there that could use some attention. I studied film and video in college (um... Uni?) and was kind of bored by the focus on the U.S. and European film industries. I really wanted to study Latin American film, but the advisor in the department basically told me, "we don't do that here." Now that the Nollywood has passed Hollywood for 2nd place in number of movies made per year, it's a perfect time for me to get my revenge!!!*

For now I'm going to keep with the Naija theme: "Twin Brothers, Every parent must watch this!" And the announcer gets the award for most out of breath performance.*What she actually said was, "we don't do 'ethnic' here."

I've made it no secret my love for Lusophone music, especially from Africa and the diaspora. Watch this great video at the Red Bull Music Video Archive for a brief rundown.

The compilation Comfusões is like a physical manifestation of the dreams in that video. It was put together by Maurício Pacheco and Outhere Records, a label based in Germany who have released some great albums the past few years. This one is a remix project that takes classic Angolan voices like my favorite, Bonga, and makes some nice hip hop and dance tracks at the hands of various Brazilian producers like DJ Dolores.

Also on the Angolan front, updates from Benjamin at Akwaaba are still coming via Twitter. Kuduro videos, and tracks, and announcements about upcoming releases, and meetings with Paulo Flores, keep em' coming Benjamin!

On a final tangent, here is a video that was posted on Comfusões' myspace page, by an Angolan rapper, Gastevil, that uses my second favorite Young Buck instrumental (click here for my number one.) Get Buck!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Not often that I listen to tracks that are over 20 mins. This an exception. Villalobos weaves in and out of a chilean folk song sample (anyone?) making it sound like a football crowd dumped in the middle of a Spanish minimal party at 5am. That's a pretty bad description to what is an ever evolving, intricate, astoundingly deep track. Here's the rare 20 min version.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Disco Shawn has offered up a free download for us from the Toy Selectah EP on Bersa Discos. From Shawn:

This tune is called "Hay Guey" and it's a reworking of a song by Tzochitl Soundsystem. The rest of the EP includes remixes of tracks by Boys Noize, classic Peruvian chicha band Los Mirlos, Argentinian cumbia producer DJ Negro, and Panamanian dancehall MC Japanese. The record is available through Turntable Lab. Toy also has an upcoming release on Mad Decent later in the year.

Hey folks, a little self plug here... I did a blend for Ghetto Palms! Drop by The Fader website to pick it up, hope you all enjoy! It's called Descendants United. Also check here and here for info on the parties listed. Big Up, once again Eddie Stats!

Monday, May 11, 2009

After my trip to Nicaragua I realized that I also had some music from the Caribbean coast which is totally different to the stuff on my Volcanics mix..

Nicaragua's Caribbean coast is one of the few parts of Latin America where English is spoken. The Nicaragua Creoles that live there are descendants of Jamaicans, fishermen, pirates, and indigenous people. The music is really close Jamaican Mento music with a bit of reggae, steel pan and cumbia thrown in. One of the most 'Tropical' sounds I've ever heard.

Monday, May 04, 2009

Sunday, May 03, 2009

I was sitting in a studio the other day and the engineer was playing a hip hop tune that sounded like it came from a kid sitting in a living room with his parent's collection of Motown LP's. I instantly recognized the musical voice of J Dilla. It was his work on projects like Donuts that really painted for me his ability to dissect a song and make it more than just a hip hop beat, but a look into how we are all functioning as post modern cultural producers. This was more than chopping up a song that you dig out of a record store crate. This was chopping up your ancestry. Here is a track I got awhile back at Soul-Sides.com, reworking a James Brown classic.

Dilla's name instantly rang out in my head when I heard Koffi Gnato (the Bété Cratedigger)via his myspace. His chopping of African LP's from the 70's instantly reminded me of J Dilla's experiments with American Funk and Soul. I'm particularly feelin' Poisson Aromatise.

From his page he says, "This is about the record collection my father left me. This is about cutting and choppin then editing it so you can hear with a hip hop flava those psyche sounds of zaïre, senegal and more. This is memories. All about music and love."

I'm excited to see what he comes up with on the production tip in the future. Check out DJ Mixes at the label Palm Wine Records based in Lyon, France.